Newsletter – March 2018
March 21st, 2018The building of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich which started in 1696, was the result of the collaboration between Christopher Wren and Nicholas Hawksmoor. These two were also responsible for the building of St. Paul’s Cathedral after the Great Fire of London. Apart from the beauty of its architecture, it claims to have Britain’s largest painted ceiling.
Unfortunately, over the years, while the Navy has trained some of our finest seamen there it has neglected the maintenance of the buildings to the point where serious restoration was required. Our speaker this month, Derek Clarke, described this restoration work which his architectural partnership undertook and his part in managing the project.
The original building was undertaken in a time of austerity and there is evidence of cost cutting. While the outward facing walls are faced with limestone the less obvious walls are faced with brick. At least the bricks were made in Birmingham which partly makes up for it.
Our next meeting at St Saviour’s Church Hall is on Tuesday 1st May 2018 at 8.00pm. It is our annual Social Evening. There will be the usual refreshments followed by a ‘gentle’ quiz. Visitors are most welcome at all our events but on this occasion tickets must be purchased in advance – see hhfs.org.uk for details and contacts.